budo wrote:Just as I'm typing this and looking at my Laptops wifi, I can see at least 10 other wifi signals from other routers in homes nearby. Doesn't that scare you in the least bit?

No but thanks for the meditation subject - seeing the body as transparent to all the electromagnetic waves that are zipping through space... pass through the body like it isn't even there... which it isn't in a way.. since matter is 99.999% space anyway...

"When one thing is practiced & pursued, ignorance is abandoned, clear knowing arises, the conceit 'I am' is abandoned, latent tendencies are uprooted, fetters are abandoned. Which one thing? Mindfulness immersed in the body." -AN 1.230

I find it strange that this thread has taken such a drastic turn, but nevertheless I will put in my 2c as a physicist:

'Radiation' ( a distinction must be made between electromagnetic and radioactive decay) comes in two broad kinds: ionising, and non-ionising. The former is harmful; the latter is not. The ionising potential of any particular photon is nominally calculated by E = hf, where h is Plank's constant and f is the frequency of the wave. Cellphones are not ionising. You have nothing to fear; anybody who tells you otherwise is most likely ill-informed and, frankly, uneducated.

As for this little tidbit:

'Just as I'm typing this and looking at my Laptops wifi, I can see at least 10 other wifi signals from other routers in homes nearby. Doesn't that scare you in the least bit?'

No, it doesn't scare me in the least. Go play with a geiger counter for a while - it's an interesting exercise to see just how much background radiation you absorb (here's a hint; that giant ball of fire in the sky spits out a good deal of ionising radiation. If 10 wifi networks make you scared, you'll be pissing yourself when you see the counts/min!)

Euclid wrote:(here's a hint; that giant ball of fire in the sky spits out a good deal of ionising radiation. If 10 wifi networks make you scared, you'll be pissing yourself when you see the counts/min!)

You beat me to it. Thank you. If people knew how what was going on outside our atmosphere (and some inside), they'd strap cellphones to their heads and groins and call it a day.

Euclid wrote:(here's a hint; that giant ball of fire in the sky spits out a good deal of ionising radiation. If 10 wifi networks make you scared, you'll be pissing yourself when you see the counts/min!)

You beat me to it. Thank you. If people knew how what was going on outside our atmosphere (and some inside), they'd strap cellphones to their heads and groins and call it a day.

Ok, but there is a difference between natural energy and artifically generated energy by humankind.

The cosmos keeps itself in a perfect balance, and we are adapted to it, as a species, due to a long evolutionary selection of the fittest.

We react to an increased sunspot activity as it occurs around every 11 years, and the effect is statistically measurable.

But we are not genetically adapted to dwelling up in the outer layers of out atmosphere, where cosmic radiation hits us harder than under the protective absorbing screen the atmosphere offers for us.

If part of it is missing, as in an ozone hole, rabbits go blind for instance.

If we get an overdose of Roentgen, we get ill.

It 's all measurable how how our bodies react to being exposed.

Of course our sensitivities differ.

Animals, ants withdraw into the earth when rain is coming, they feel a different electrical load in the air.

And sensitive human beings have fine antennas too.

Some people suffer from insomnia, when they sleep close to an electrcial device.

Annapurna wrote:Ok, but there is a difference between natural energy and artifically generated energy by humankind.

There really isn't. There is no such thing as 'artificially generated energy' - it all occurs via natural processes. This is physics, not magic.

The cosmos keeps itself in a perfect balance, and we are adapted to it, as a species, due to a long evolutionary selection of the fittest.

I don't understand what you're saying here to be honest. I don't know what you mean by saying that the cosmos is in 'perfect balance', and I don't see how it has anything to do with cellphones and their associated EMFs being a danger to people. At the present moment, hundreds of thousands upon thousands of supernovae are taking place - explosions that last millenia, and with an intensity so high that we can observe them from light-years away. If this doesn't upset the 'perfect balance' of the cosmos, I sincerely doubt running electricity through a wire would upset it.

If part of it is missing, as in an ozone hole, rabbits go blind for instance.

If we get an overdose of Roentgen, we get ill.

It 's all measurable how how our bodies react to being exposed.

Yes, because this is what I was talking about earlier - ionizing radiation. The stuff your cellphone puts out is non-ionising. You cannot compare the two.

Some people suffer from insomnia, when they sleep close to an electrcial device.

Zavk, you mentioned a nice Burmese bell to wake up with that you downloaded from some buddhism site. I'm looking everywhere on the net for it. I discovered that the name is 'kyeezee' so I decided to make it my username here immediately -- I'm new on this site. I really like the sound. The only downloadable kyeezee-sounds I can find though are from some guy named Stephan Micus, but those bells are much higher in sound than the ones at meditation courses (at IMC anyway). And I want just one single bell sound, not a whole concert of bells.By the way, I don't want to use it to wake up but to let me know that an hour or something has passed when meditating. It's such a soothing sound.Fyi: I use a cell-phone as alarm-clock and am more skeptical of the whole superstition around it than of the 'radiation' of the cell-phone itself. And I have a lot of attachments, but an attachment to my cell-phone I don't have.

Through many a birth I wandered in samsara, seeking, but not finding the builder of this house. Sorrowful is it to be born again and again.

O house-builder! Thou art seen. Thou shalt build no house again. All thy rafters are broken. Thy ridge-pole is shattered. My mind has attained the unconditioned. Achieved is the end of craving.

I didn't know where to post this question but, since it's about pre-meditation time, I thought this corner of the forum would be right; Moderators, feel free to move it to a more proper section if needed.

Well, my problem is as follows: I want to start again my morning meditation sessions before doing anything else for the day, the problem is that, if I set up my alarm to get up earlier than usual, I'll wake my partner up who shares my bed. In the past, whenever I wanted to get up earlier I just tried to be aware of the time during the night and get up before the alarm would set off, but this left me restless and sleepy not only for the meditation session but for the rest of the day.

How do you -who share room with a partner who does not want to be awoken 1h earlier- solve this problem? Is there any device out there for these cases? I've been thinking that an ankle bracelet which vibrates with no sound when the time is right would be a good idea if it's not invented yet

Thanks,JoeLop

I use the "iHome" alarm clock. It may be a lot less expensive that some of the fancy Zen chime alarm clocks, or new age aroma clocks or what not. You just pop in your ipod (or iphone), and create a playlist called "iHome" with your favorite downloaded gong, chime, meditation timing app, or whatever you prefer, and problem potentially solved! (I use the "Singing Bowl Meditation" track, on the "Music for Deep Meditation" recording by "Tibetan Singing Bowl" from iTunes. It starts out with a slowly increasing sound of the bowl which usually does the trick, enabling me to get up to the clock in time to hit the off button before the first gong sounds. If I don't make it, there is the ring of a gong that sounds, and although it is loud enough to wake someone else, depending of course on where you set your volume, the sound of the gong is much less offensive to hear first thing in the am than a typical alarm.)

"It is what it is." -foreman infamous for throwing wrenches in fits of rage